SH> I referred Felipe to the free access to the Internet 
 SH> one has here through one of many public libraries and 
 SH> he has not yet responded.  

From my own travels, talking to other librarians, and other users, it seems
that while some kind of internet availability it nearly universal, quality,
quantity do vary greatly. Texas has had a dual opportunity since the mid
'90s. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grants of equipment and
training is one of these. 
It was outgunned by double whammy of Texas House Bill 2128 and the Texas
Infrastructure Fund. House Bill 2128 said that in order to foster internet
access to education, rural areas, and the economically disadvantaged,
providers had to provide broadband to schools and libraries at cost plus
five percent. Translated, schools and libraries get T1's for $260 a month
(instead of $800+). The Texas Infrastructure Fund (aka TIF) is basically a
tariff on cell phone services; the money raised is distributed thru
competitive technology grants for network hardware, wiring, installation,
and servers.
TIF requires the receiving entity to contribute some level of matching
funds, percentage based on eligibility.

It's tougher for entitys that don't get their broadband cheap, or in places
where they're on metered service (charged according to megs of data
transferred) I suppose that would make them place limits on what you could
do. I.e., we have LS-120, ZIP-100, or ZIP-250 drives on most of our public
access computers. If we were  paying business T1 rates or on metered
service, we might have only provided standard floppies. ;-)

 SH> But Michiel said that 
 SH> Internet access through libraries in the Netherlands 
 SH> was not free and my response to that was have the 
 SH> library get a Gates Foundation Grant. 

That's certainly an option to get client computers into the building, but
broadband costs at his location are still a significant part of the
equation
An option other libraries have pursued is using older equipment and linux.
There's a library in Colorado (Colorado Springs?) that runs their entire
operation on linux/freebsd. I'll have to dig up the url for their site.
Given the popularity of linux in europe, I'd suspect that route to me more
common over there. 

 JD> As for the message's subject; I used to say that I intended to be
 JD> the last node in fidonet; but since the growth of fido in russia, I
 JD> may have to settle for the distinction of being the last fido node
 JD> in zone 1. ;-)

 SH> You are more ambitious than I am or you are a fair bit 

maybe just stubborn....

 SH> younger.  I think Fidonet will outlive me.:-)

In 3 1/2 more years I'll have my 25 in. Then I'll have to figure out what
to do for the next 18-20 years until I can draw on it. :-(

(Assuming the feds don't keep pushing back the age at which you can start
collecting on SSI and retirement account proceeds)

I hope Fido outlives both of us.

--- Maximus/2 3.01